The Role of Routines
Humans create routines (or habits) to help navigate a complex world. For those with children, these routines may be more familiar: school morning routines, bedtime routines, routines for sport practices, etc. But everyone has habits that they use to help decrease their cognitive load on any given day—for example, taking the same route to work each day or eating the same breakfast each day. The mental work that it would have taken to think through your breakfast options, for example, can then be allotted to other tasks during the day. Creating a successful routine takes time though. Just think about all of the New Year’s resolutions that are going strong in January but fall to the wayside in February. When making changes—including to your routines—psychological research indicates that it takes approximately 2 months for a new behavior to become a habit. Think of the beginning of each semester as a time of transition, when the routines of the previous semester can be reassessed in the new semester. During this time of transition, give yourself permission to have stumbles and to make mistakes. When you can feel the stresses of the lack of a routine getting to you, give yourself a break. Having stumbles along the way is an opportunity to create or modify a routine, test its limits, and learn where you may need to make a few ‘tweaks’ to the system.